Checkpoint Updated 156-315.81 Exam Questions and Answers by effy

 The “unknown” SIC status shown on SmartConsole means that there is no connection between the Security Gateway and Security Management Server. SIC stands for Secure Internal Communication, which is a mechanism that ensures secure communication between Check Point components using certificates and encryption. SIC status can be one of the following: Trust established, Trust expired, Uninitialized, or Unknown. Trust established means that SIC is working properly and the components can communicate securely. Trust expired means that the SIC certificate has expired and needs to be renewed. Uninitialized means that SIC has not been configured yet and needs to be initialized with an activation key. Unknown means that the Security Management Server cannot reach the Security Gateway or vice versa, and therefore cannot verify the SIC status. This could be due to network issues, firewall rules, routing problems, or other causes that prevent connectivity between the components. References: Check Point R81 Security Management Administration Guide, page 32-33

The solution to troubleshoot the issue of some Internet resources being unavailable is to run fw ctl zdebug drop on the relevant gateway1. This command lists all dropped packets in real time and explains the reasons for the drop2. It is a powerful tool that can help diagnose connectivity problems and firewall policy issues3. To use this command, you need to access the gateway in expert mode and run fw ctl zdebug + drop2. You can also filter the output by using grep with an IP address or a keyword, for example: fw ctl zdebug + drop | grep 10.10.10.10 or fw ctl zdebug + drop | grep SYN3. This command is a wrapper for the full debugs, and it will run the debug commands for you and will allow you to run debug from one debug module only4. By default, it will use a small debug buffer but if you wish, you can provide the -buf option to use your own size4. To stop the command, press Ctrl+C and then run fw ctl debug 0 to reset the debug state3.

Note: Running this command may affect the performance of the firewall, so use it with caution and only when necessary3. References: Solved: is it possible /supported to run fw ctl zdebug on … - Check …, How to use the fw ctl zdebug command to view drops on the Security Gateway, Troubleshooting dropped packets in Checkpoint using zdebug, “fw ctl zdebug” - Helpful Command Combinations - Check Point CheckMates

The valid SecureXL paths in R81.20 are F2F (Slow path), Accelerated Path, Medium Path and F2V1. SecureXL is a technology that accelerates the performance of the Security Gateway by offloading CPU-intensive operations to the SecureXL device2. SecureXL uses different paths to process packets, depending on the type and state of the connection3. The SecureXL paths are3:

• F2F (Slow path): This path handles packets that require a full inspection by the Firewall kernel. It is the slowest path, but it supports all features and blades. Examples of packets that use this path are packets that belong to a new connection, packets that match a rule with UTM blades, or packets that require address translation.
• Accelerated Path: This path handles packets that belong to an established connection that does not require any further inspection by the Firewall kernel. It is the fastest path, but it supports only a limited set of features and blades. Examples of packets that use this path are packets that match an accept rule with no UTM blades, or packets that match a rule with SecureXL acceleration enabled.
• Medium Path: This path handles packets that belong to an established connection that requires some inspection by the Firewall kernel, but not a full inspection. It is faster than the F2F path, but slower than the Accelerated path. It supports more features and blades than the Accelerated path, but less than the F2F path. Examples of packets that use this path are packets that match a rule with IPS or Anti-Bot blades, or packets that require NAT templates.
• F2V: This path handles packets that are encapsulated or decapsulated by the VPN kernel. It is faster than the F2F path, but slower than the Accelerated path. It supports VPN features such as encryption, decryption, encapsulation, and decapsulation. References: R81.x Security Gateway Architecture (Logical Packet Flow) - Check Point CheckMates, SecureXL Mechanism in R80.10 and above - Check Point Software, SecureXL - Check Point Software

The most recommended solution for high load on sync interface is to exclude FTP connections from synchronization. This is because FTP connections are usually long-lived and consume a lot of bandwidth and resources on the sync interface. By excluding FTP connections from synchronization, the load on the sync interface can be reduced and the performance of the cluster can be improved. References: Synchronization Optimization